Live Nation's VR Push Gets Thumbs Up

A rendering of Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, concert bowl virtual reality experience.

On paper it seems like a misprint: the world's biggest concert promoter is diving into virtual reality programming and live video production in a bid to allow fans to experience immersive music events from home.

But to hear Jordan Zachary, the company's chief strategy officer tell it, Live Nation’s (LN) recently announced spate of deals with Vice Media, Hulu, NextVR and Greenlight Media make perfect sense. "Over the years we've embraced all kinds of technology and I'm sure we'll learn a lot in the first year or two as the experience only gets better and the distribution gets wider faster than people anticipate," said Zachary. "We're not just after replicating the live experience from the front row seat, but creating a concert experience in a different way."

Jordan Zachary 

Zachary knows there is no replacement for sitting in a venue packed with 15,000 screaming fans, but the idea with the new ventures is to create more excitement around performances, adding to the experience in ways their artists are comfortable with.

The deals, he said, are about bringing that content to people who might not go to one of the 25,000 shows or 80 global festivals LN puts on every year. As part of the effort, LN hired veteran MTV producer Heather Parry to help build an in-house TV-and-film studio and re-upped its agreement with Vice Media to produce programming. They partnered with Hulu for distribution, NextVR to create virtual reality experiences and Greenlight to find branded content opportunities.

The goal is to both tap into new sources of ad revenue, but also lure stay-at-home music fans to check out its events in the hope that they might be inspired to become paying customers down the line.

Far from being concerned about potential lost revenue, Sacramento's Golden 1 Center chief technology officer Ryan Montoya said the plan dovetails well with a new arena they're developing that will have a state-of-the-art AV system that incorporates 4K Ultra HD technology. "Each performer sets their guidelines on performances, but we’re excited to feature technology to help capture great shows," he said. "In terms of VR, we’re developing a virtual reality camera system with our partners and integrating it into our cutting-edge video infrastructure."

Montoya said his company is always looking for new ways to work with LN and performers and he's excited to see acts and their management appreciating the impact that cutting-edge technology will have on the live music experience. "Finding ways to expand and grow the audience with an immersive experience will connect fans with artists in new ways," he said.

For LN's Zachary, the move is less of a chance to fill a hole in the market and more of an opportunity to move into the niche that MTV had before it began moving out of the music business at the turn of the millennium. "We want to find ways to work with any distribution company because there's not one right now that's owning live content," he said.

LN hopes to be the ideal music distributor for Hulu (or any other willing outlet), taking the position that any platform that's looking for music content is a potential partner. That also explains its plans with NextVR, which has already proved adept at creating cutting-edge viewer experiences for NASCAR and March Madness.  

The ultimate goal is to pull in more ad revenue and make new potential customers for live events, with Zachary pointing to data that shows that people who watch a live concert are more likely to buy a ticket in the future. "We reach over 70 million people globally every year and that number will continue to grow. But even though there is a huge appetite for video out there, those people are probably only going to 2-3 shows a year, not 12, so we'll use our partner channels, Snapchat, Facebook and Yahoo to reach those people," he said.

The results could be full concerts, behind-the-scenes footage and other events like this fall's "Earth Works" show on Viceland, in which musicians travel the globe to visit fragile ecosystems and alert audiences to endangered areas through music. While Zachary would not put a dollar amount on the investment, he said it's just like any new area that LN expands into, from tour sponsorships to venue sponsorship, in that it's aimed at expanding what CEO Michael Rapino refers to as the "flywheel" around which all of the new business revolves: live events.

So far, Zachary said he hasn't gotten any pushback from venues worried that giving fans the option to stay home might result in lost revenue for the buildings. "Virtual reality allows fans who many never have an opportunity to experience a show become immersed in the spectacle of a performance," said Montoya. "That’s a great way to grow your fan base and provide new opportunities to interact."

Zachary compared the new plan to the days when there was a brief panic about the impact of DVD sales on live music. "If you think back to the DVD days, there were tons of live shows on DVD, but people still came out," he said. "We have partnerships with Yahoo, Snapchat Live stories from festivals and with other platforms that our venues think enhance the ecosystem. It's similar to sports: nobody thinks if the NBA finals are on TV that nobody will go to the game. We believe in always expanding the pie.

Contacted for this story: Ryan Montoya, (916) 928-0000; Jordan Zachary, (310) 867-7000